Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request

Information regarding costs, hours worked, and success of Prosecutions as a result of Northumbria Police’s Operation Optic.

Request

1. Please provide a breakdown of all known costs to the CPS of prosecutions (both successful/failed/aborted) as a result of Northumbria Police’s Operation Optic;

2. Please disclose the known number of hours logged by staff working on the cases.

3. Please disclose the number of successful, failed and aborted prosecutions.

Response

1. As of 18 March 2019 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had paid as follows:

   **Leading Counsel** for Trial Optic 1 £43,605.87 and Optic 2 & 3 £7,348.80

   **Junior Led Counsel** for Trial Optic 1 £31,016.08 Optic 2 & 3 £5030.32

   **Total**- £87,001.07

2. The CPS does not record time spent by internal lawyers, paralegals and administrative staff on a case by case basis. We can therefore only provide counsel costs as mentioned above.

3. 14 cases have been stopped at Court, as no was evidence offered.

Information Management Unit 020 3357 0899 IMU@cps.gov.uk